Aryl phosphites, cobalt complexes

In the sixties it was recognized that ligand substitution on the cobalt carbonyl might influence the performance of the catalyst. It has been found that aryl phosphines or phosphites have little influence in fact they may not even coordinate to cobalt under such high CO pressures. Tertiary alkyl phosphines, however, have a profound influence [5] the reaction is much slower, the selectivity to linear products increases, the carbonyl complex formed, HCoL(CO)3, is much more stable, and the catalyst acquires activity for hydrogenation. This process has been commercialized by Shell. As a result of the higher stability of the cobalt complex, the Shell process can be operated at lower pressures and higher temperatures (50-100 bar vs 200-300 bar for HCo(CO)4, 170°C vs 140°C). 

Since the researcher normally looks to the chemistry of soluble complexes in designing polymer-bound catalysts, it is notable that some areas that have proven fruitful in homogeneous catalysis have been omitted from investigations using polymer-bound catalysts. One of these areas concerns the reactions of arenes. Benzene, for example, may be hydrogenated with homogeneous cobalt phosphite and ruthenium phosphine complexes, but the corresponding supported versions are not reported. Aryl halides may be carboxylated in the presence of a soluble palladium catalyst ... 

Alkyl- and aryl-cobalt tetracarbonyls also react readily with phosphines forming acyl derivatives RCOCo(CO)3PR 3. Phosphite ligands are found to replace carbon monoxides successively forming RCOCo(CO)2L2 [193]. The replacement of two carbon monoxide ligands by phosphites under conditions where phosphine ligands will only replace one carbon monoxide, is therefore found for both cobalt and manganese complexes. Both... 

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